Yes, news that U.S. Rep Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, is leaving Congress for radio means there will be a hot primary and general election.

But on a larger level, it is another blow to Michigan's clout in Washington D.C., in a year where it is already losing two of its most senior members, Democrats U.S. Sen. Carl Levin and Rep. John Dingell.

In the past six year, Michigan’s Congressional delegation has had more years of collective experience than at any other time in the state’s history.

In this current session, half of Michigan’s 16-member delegation are chairs or ranking members of top committees.

"Losing Mike Rogers in Congress deals another serious tenure blow to the Michigan delegation," TJ Bucholz, a political strategist with Lambert, Edwards & Associates and a former spokesman for Govs. John Engler and Jennifer Granholm, said in an e-mail.

For businesses and universities it’s important to have a powerful member who can make a call to a department or agency.

“It can save weeks and months of time, cut through the regulatory process to get answers,” John Truscott, former spokesman for Gov. John Engler and now a strategic communications consultant who frequently deals with delegation members, told me for the article. "It really helps the constituents of Michigan to have people who are powerful.”

And Rogers, who is currently one of the leaders on foreign policy and intelligence, was an important part of that mix.

"This is yet another huge step back," Truscott told me Friday after news broke about Rogers. "Mike has been the type of guy who has a really good ability to bring people together."

Michigan still has some senior members: Sander Levin and John Conyers on the Democrat side. On the GOP side are Republicans Fred Upton, chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee and Dave Camp, whose chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee will end soon.

But the loss of the three in one year will be noticeable.

The district is considered competitive and Democrats will try to pick it up. But whoever replaces Rogers will start at the bottom of the seniority.

"There are a number of good people who can step up and do a good job...but it will take a while to get seniority," Truscott said.

Rogers bill

In the week before announcing he was not seeking re-election, Rogers introduced a new bill that would end the National Security Agency's bulk collection of telephone, email, and internet metadata.

Under the plan, the data would stay with phone companies, and a judge's order would be required for the NSA to get at the data.

Rogers has long defended the NSA programs, which were exposed by former contractor Edward Snowden's leaks.

Rogers said this is "a bipartisan proposal that will ensure the highest levels of privacy and civil liberties while still maintaining the tools our government needs to keep us, and our allies, safe."

However, U.S. Rep Justin Amash, R-Cascade Township, one of the most vocal critics of the NSA, is skeptical.

Amash has supported other bills that would end the NSA's ability of collecting data under the Patriot Act, unless it was part of an ongoing investigation.

“We’ve seen some of what the House Intelligence Committee has put out. … Based on what I’ve read about it, it appears to expand the NSA’s authority," Amash said. "It doesn’t end bulk collection but actually puts more Americans in danger of having their constitutionally protected rights violated.”

Silver looked at all 36 senate races and found that Republicans have a 45 percent shot to take the Michigan Senate seat.

In his write up on Michigan, Silver praised Land as a candidate and said the Michigan race is "somewhere between purple and blue instead of red, and there’s no incumbent, as Democratic Sen. Carl Levin is retiring."

Recent polls show the race is within the margin of error. The Rothenberg Political Report and Roll Call say the Senate seat leans Democrat, while the Cook Political report lists it as a toss up.

Silver:

But we take the polls that show the race as a toss-up at face value. The question is whether Michigan’s modest blue lean is enough to overcome a modestly Republican-leaning national climate.